Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Yes, the mSATA port is available on every model as far as I can tell.

 

I've emailed the company's with the question if their software support high resolution screens and if the software runs better on a quadro or a geforce.
I expect in the next few days a email with information, and I hope I can make a decision which notebook I will buy by the end of the week

 

Yes, just make sure the BIOS setting for SATA operation is AHCI, because if you're on Intel Smart Response, it will assume the SSD in the mSATA slot is supposed to be treated as a cache module, not an independent disk. But as others have said, other than irritatingly using Torx head screws rather than something more common like Phillips, this machine is very easy to install a hard drive (or two) and RAM into. The 8GB spec also uses a 1x8GB configuration, so you can jump to 16 by simply adding another (compatible) module rather than replacing two existing sticks with two larger sticks.

If you want to see what working on the laptop entails, go to support.dell.com, select this system, and open up the Owner's Manual, which has instructions on how to disassemble and reassemble basically everything, complete with marked up pictures so you can see where and what everything is.

 

What is the stock 8gb ram module that's used anyone know?

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Dell often has multiple RAM suppliers, so what I have won't guarantee that's what you'll get (in fact apparently Dell has already added another 256GB mSATA SSD into the mix), but here's what I posted for mine in the XPS 15 thread answering another similar question:

I'd recommend waiting until you get yours and checking your exact specs with CPU-Z before buying another 8GB module aftermarket. The most important factors to match are speed and voltage. A vendor match isn't necessary; it's a bonus if you can get it, but I've seen modules from the same vendor not interoperate, occasionally even when voltages and speeds match. I've also noticed that CPU-Z can't reliably get memory information after Hyper-V is enabled on Windows 8.1 Pro (since Hyper-V actually runs even the primary OS on top of the hypervisor), so you may have to launch it MANY times before it pulls that information if you use it. No idea why it works sporadically rather than either reliably or not at all in that setup, but that's what I observed with the version I downloaded at the time.

 

The biggest difference is in the GPU, the weight, and the possibility of going to 32gb later. The processor speed difference is less than you'd think with turbo, and that's the base quad core on the M4800 not one of the higher options.

The material is the same as is on the Latitudes for the past 3 years, and it's held up fine on those machines as long as you're not eating a lot of greasy food at the keyboard. My E6420 got a couple of spots on the rubberized are that wouldn't wash off, but I learned not to do that and saw no similar problems on either my E6430 or E6230 (and given the number of meals on the road I had with the latter, that took some work to avoid!)

How much do you travel or use the machine in meetings? The weight difference is big (and I'd encourage you to wait for firm pricing on the W540 before deciding if you really need something more like the M4800 -- but if you're mostly just carry the machine between work and home or leave it at home, the extra 2 1/2-3 lbs may not make a difference.

Do you expect to need greater than 16gb of memory during the lifetime of the machine? A lot of my coworkers (enterprise java development) do, and have to use something heavier. I'm willing to NX into my desktop when I need it.

Do you need the bigger GPU?

Honestly, I don't think any machine is guaranteed to get 3-4 years of life these days, and the difference in capabilities between the two is not huge except for the memory limit doubling on the M4800 (or W540)

It's the same material as the E6x20 and newer Latitudes. Those concerned should ask in the owners' threads for those machines.

It's 576 CUDA cores vs. 384, although the memory is not enough faster to make it truly 1.5x faster as the number of CUDA cores might indicate. It's definitely faster, though.

I'm not able to choose othe configuration because it's from dell otlet.[/QUOTE]

It's easy to swap an SSD into (or add a mSATA card to) the M4800 if you get that.

Also, outlet stock turns over rapidly, and there's often some they can find on the phone that doesn't show up on the web site.

Really easy to do. Taking out 10 torx screws is annoying, but not hard at all, and the rest is all as easily user-serviceable as any other machine I've owned (keyboard replacement looks relatively bad, though.)

You might pick up one of these screwdrivers on Amazon or something equivalent; an $8-$12 screwdriver is a very small investment on top of a $1000+ machine ($2000+ machine at the higher specs!) and the small torx bits on cheap screwdriver sets are prone to stripping.

I've had them mix RAM suppliers within a batch of "identical" machines on the same order (although never within a given machine.)

Matching the timing is helpful, although things will generally slow down to match the slower DIMM. I didn't see what were in mine while I had it open, but CPU-Z reports Samsung, and 11-11-11-28 timings.

BTW they are silkscreened specifically "DDR-3L only" on the motherboard, so 1.35V is a must.

 

Sweet thanks man.

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Hello guys. I received my M3800 (only one hhd 500 GB) with windows 8.1 PRO (purchased on the Italian store). I would like to install on the same hhd original windows 7 Ultimate. (main use CAD-CAM).
When booting from usb arrival to the partition selection screen:

Disk 0 Partition 1: ESP System
Disk 0 Partition 2: DIAGS OEM (reserved)
Disk 0 Partition 3 MSR (Reserved)
Disk 0 Partition 4: WINRETOOLS OEM (reserved)
Disk 0 Partition 5: Primary OS
Disk 0 Partition 6: PBRimage OEM (reserved)

The message states that it is impossible to install win7 on each of these partitions. What should I do?
Which of these partitions must be formatted in NTFS?
The other partitions should I leave them as they are?

Help please!

 

If you are not booting Windows 7 with UEFI, you will have to erase all of the partitions on the disk before it will install.

 

Which boot mode should I choose to start installer windows 7? I chose legacy .... is that correct?